REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE

REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE

BY CURRY R. BLAKE General Overseer of John G.

Ministries and

© 2013 – Curry R. Blake –John G. Lake Ministries

Lake

Dominion Life

International Apostolic Church

Copyright © 2013 by Curry R. Blake

All Rights Reserved

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Cover design by John E. Blake.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Bible.

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without express written permission of Curry Blake.

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Content within this book is a transcript from a Sunday Morning Broadcast given by Curry R. Blake at Dominion Life International Apostolic Church on January 27, 2013.

REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE

Sunday Morning Broadcast given by Curry R. Blake at Dominion Life International Apostolic Church

We are going to be doing this teaching in two parts. One of the goals of JGLM is to make sure that everybody in the church registry is a Certified Divine Healing Technician. We want to know that each one has the message and we want to make sure that everybody gets trained in how to minister to people and get results.

We’re going to go to a couple of places. If you have your Bibles, turn to Psalms 107. After that we are going to be in Galatians chapter 2.

In Psalm chapter 107, verses 1 and 2 it says:

1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

Are there any redeemed of the Lord here today? Amen.

We’re going to look at what it means to be redeemed, and we will cover that during the first session.

Redeemed from the Curse

We are calling this first part, “Redeemed from the Curse.” Many of you have probably heard this. It just goes back to some of the basics of healing, but it covers every aspect of your life.

The word redeemed in the Greek is lutrōsis and is pronounced loo’-tro-sis. It means a ransoming (figuratively), or redemption; that is, a redemption price (figuratively atonement): ransom.

You have to remember that to be redeemed simply means to have been paid a ransom for. Jesus paid a ransom. The word redeemed means to have a ransom paid for something and whenever the ransom is paid, the thing paid for is given back to the original, rightful owner.

That perfectly fits in with everything Scripture tells us. It says that we have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many. We want to realize that today. A lot of these things I am condensing, but I’m emphasizing and hitting some of these points. You need to know once and for all, if you are born again, if Jesus Christ is your Lord, and if you have made Him your Savior then you have been redeemed. You are separated from the kingdom of darkness.

The kingdom of darkness has no power and no authority over you. Notice that the enemy can have ability, but it has no authority. Our authority in Christ and our ability in Christ can eliminate the enemy’s ability in our life. He has absolutely no authority in your life at any time, because you belong to God. That’s a staple in Christianity and you need to realize and get a hold of that. We’re going to talk about what that means.

Redeemed from the Curse

I’m going to say it again, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” Are you sure?

It got a little weak the second time. We may have to stand up and take a few minutes to just walk around and let the Lord and the devil, and angels and demons, and everybody around us know that we are redeemed.

We have our Bible School here and every morning the Bible School students do that. They get together, they pray over the prayer requests, but they also build into themselves the reality of who they are in Christ. You are either going to do it for yourself or you’re going to be calling for prayer from someone who does it; one of the two. You have to have that built into you.

We have been redeemed. A lot of times people say, “If we are redeemed why are there still problems in our life?” That’s because your mind still needs to be renewed to the fact that you’re redeemed. Even when your mind is renewed it doesn’t mean that the enemy is not going to try to attack. It just means that his attacks will have less effect on you. To be honest with you, they’re going to get stronger and stronger, but their effect on you will be less and less as your mind is renewed.

Let’s go to Galatians chapter 2. We’re going to start in verse 20. Very honestly, this is just the crux of the matter. This is the heart of Christianity. This is the essence of Christianity. If we are not redeemed then Jesus’ life, His death, His burial, and His resurrection had no effect on us whatsoever. We have to realize that we are the redeemed of the Lord.

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

In Galatians 2:20, Paul was writing to the Galatians who were having a really hard time, apparently, staying saved. I use that term loosely, but he made some strong statements to them. Paul wrote some pretty strong things to the Corinthians, but of all the people he wrote to, he probably got onto the Galatians the most. The most direct and the most severe scolding would probably have been to the Galatians. In verse 20 he says,

20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

That should be a statement every Christian makes regularly, “I am crucified with Christ and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Understand that he says, “It’s no longer I that live but Christ lives in me.” We need to realize that and get that built into us so that it comes out of us, so that we start allowing Christ, the Anointed One, to live through our life and out of our life. Amen?

Verse 21 says,

21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

In other words, if we could have gotten what we needed from God through the Law, then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to die, but He did need to die, so obviously the Law could not do what needed to be done.

He went on to say, “For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

In Galatians 3:1, it says,

1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you.” Again, that’s some strong language. He said, “That you should not obey the truth.” He didn’t say that you should not believe the truth. He said that you should not obey the truth, so there is an obedience involved in the truth. He said, “Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,” obviously set forth, “crucified among you?”

Verse 2 says,

2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

In other words, did the Law bring the Spirit of God? Did the Law get you born again? Did the Law allow the Spirit of God to dwell in and allow you to be filled with the Spirit of God? Obviously the answer here is no.

In verse 3 he said,

3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

We know that the Galatians had found out about Christ and had believed on Christ, but then had gone back under the Law to try to make sure they were right with God. They started trying to obey the Law; the Letter of the Law, specifically. The Spirit of the Law is fine; there is nothing wrong with the Spirit of the Law.

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

Jesus Himself made it very clear when He said in Matthew 22:40, 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

“What the Law and prophets hang on is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” He said, “Those commandments are good and those are the commandments of the New Testament.” They are the essence of the New Testament.

He said, “If you really obey the Law in the Spirit, then you would be doing these two things.” He said, “But the Law did not give you life. It told you what was wrong and it told you how to live.” He said, “He gave you the Law so that you would know where you’re missing it.” The heart of the Law is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Paul was talking to them because they had come to Christ, but then they went back to the Law to try to make sure they were living right. Paul mentioned that whenever he went face-to-face with Peter he said, “Peter, you’re a Jew but you’re not living like a Jew. These Gentiles have come in and you have started putting laws and regulations on them and making them live like Jews and making them obey the Law; every letter of the Law when you’re not even doing it.” He said, “I withstood him to his face.” He was trying to say, “Going back under the Law is not what’s going to fix you. Even living by the letter of the Law is not what’s going to do it.”

I’m not saying that there are not standards. As a matter of fact, I had some questions here this week in the Bible School. We were studying the course of Systematic Theology. That is where you go through a systematic study of God; that’s all it means. The main

essence of that course was to understand the moral law and the obedience to the moral law, and who has the right to govern and who has a right to make law.

One of the questions we got was, “What is the difference between moral law and what is termed as the conscience?” Well, the fact is that a law is something that can’t be altered. A law is a law; that’s what it is. It is a rule to be followed. It is a standard to be obeyed. The difference between the moral law and the conscience is that the moral law always remains the same, but the conscience can be seared. You can’t just go by the conscience because your conscience can be seared to the place where you call evil good and good evil. That’s the main difference between moral law and your conscience. People say, “Well, if you just follow your conscience…” That depends on how much your conscience isn’t seared. That’s the main aspect.

Another question was: “As a believer, how does one deal with certain laws of man that do not line up with the Word of God?” Basically, this was asking about man’s government; certain laws that are immoral. We have a responsibility, according to the Bible, to obey laws that do not violate the Law of God. The Bible says to obey the laws of the land, but if there is a law that does not obey the law of God we are bound not to obey it.

If people had obeyed the laws of man as opposed to the Laws of God, we wouldn’t have had any of the Civil Rights movement of the ‘60s or anything else that went on. There comes a time when you have to stand up and say, “This isn’t right.” Just because somebody has a title, it doesn’t make them legally and lawfully able to make a law.

That’s when it comes down to what your Christianity is going to cost you. At some point, you have to decide that you will stand for the rights that God has given and for the standard that God expects as opposed to laws that man came up with.

The Bible is very clear. When the righteous rule, the people live in peace, but when the evil and the wicked rule, then the people mourn and groan because of the labor and because of the burdens that are put upon them. We know that it is possible for evil men to rule. That means that godly rules and laws will not be in place.

That’s one of the reasons why people say, “We should separate religion and politics.” “Yes, and as soon as you do, then evil people will rule.” We need righteous men in office. Let’s get back to Galatians chapter 3.

3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

He says, in verse 4,

4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

In other words, he was saying, “You’ve gone through all of these things. You’ve taken the ridicule, you’ve taken all of the persecution and now you’re backing off? If you’ve suffered that in vain, why have you done that? What’s going on that you would back off of the truth and try to just become a new type of Jew, where you’re obeying these same laws and going into these things?”

It wasn’t that the Laws of God were so bad. It was the way that men had interpreted the Laws of God which made the burdens.

That’s because the Bible says very clearly that the Law of God is perfect, it is just, it is right and it is good. Even the Psalmist David said that if he had not had the Law then he would have been destroyed, so there was an aspect of the Law that was good.

5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

He’s bringing it home even more so by saying, “The works of the Law don’t bring miracles, and they don’t bring healings. The hearing of faith brings the working of miracles; by the Spirit.”

6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

We all know that Abraham was way before Jesus, way before the cross, and yet he was accounted righteous because he believed. Righteousness comes by believing by faith and not by the works of the Law.

If it came by the works of the Law, Abraham couldn’t have been justified because the Law was not yet put in place. The fact that Abraham was made righteous proves you don’t need the Law to be righteous.

7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

Those that be of faith are the children of Abraham.

8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

I have taken this Scripture and looked at it in the Greek. I have looked at it even in various translations and it all comes down to something very simple. Before the Law was ever put into place, God told Abraham, “Because you decided to believe, then all nations will be blessed in you.” That was the blessing of Abraham.

We always talk about how we have been redeemed from the curse so that we can have the blessing of Abraham. Well, the blessing of Abraham was really very simple. He said, “Wherever you go, whoever blesses you, I’ll bless. Whoever curses you, I’ll curse.” That’s pretty much the bottom line. He said, “And I’ll make you a great nation and I’ll make your Name great in all the earth.” That is essentially the blessing of Abraham.

The reason behind it was that Abraham believed that the Spirit could be given. The whole purpose of why God wanted Abraham to believe was because it gave Him a way to get back into this earth to operate and to bring the Spirit back in so that men could be a habitation of the Spirit of God. Bottom line, that’s what it was all about. He goes on in verse 9 to say,

9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Earlier you said you were people of faith, that you have been redeemed, that you believe in God, that you believe in Jesus Christ, and that you have made Him your Lord and Savior. That means that you are of faithful Abraham, and that means that everything

that God said about Abraham, that same blessing comes over on you. Think about that.

He said, “Whoever blesses you, I will bless.” Then He said, “Whoever curses you I will curse.”

Now you can see why Jesus said, “If they curse you, bless them.” He said, “Pray for your enemies.” Why? That’s because they have put themselves in a place so that when they curse you whatever they said about you is going to come back on them. You are to pray for them and be that intercessor to say, “Oh, Lord, don’t let that happen.” Why? That shows the difference in your nature as opposed to their nature. You don’t say, “Yeah, God get them.” No. That’s not the heart of the Christian.

The heart of the Christian is, “Lord, hold back. Will you not forgive? Will you not hold back if there are just ten righteous?” That’s the heart of God.

What Moses did with God, regarding the Israelites, was the heart of God, and what Abraham did between God and Sodom and Gomorrah when he asked God to spare the cities was the heart of God. All of that showed that our hearts are supposed to forgive and bless, not to curse those who curse.

I was watching television a couple of years ago and there was a preacher on TV. He had moved from Portland down to Dallas and he was on TBN. He was asking the people, “How many of you have been cursed by people in your church?”

The whole room said, “Oh yeah,” and they all started waving handkerchiefs at him and getting worked up.

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries 11

He said, “Well, if you’ve been cursed, if anybody’s put a curse on you or said negative things about you, come down front.” They all packed down to the front. He said, “Now, we’re going to send those curses right back on them.” He just blatantly said, “We’re going to send that back on them.”

All of the people that were there, said, “Oh yeah. Let’s do that!” The whole crowd went right along with him. They turned around and rejected the curse and put the curse back on those who sent them.

I saw that, and I just got mad and turned the TV off. I thought, “Is there not anybody there hearing this? Is there not anybody there that knows the Scriptures that plainly say that when they curse you, you don’t curse back, but you bless them?” That’s because there is not much Word preached today; especially straight from the Bible. Most of it is psychology and all kinds of other things in a feel good gospel. They are trying to make you be the employee of the month as opposed to being a Christian in heart. We have to get back to what the Bible says.

Now, he goes on in verse 10,

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

“For as many as

are of the works of the Law are under the curse.”

You do have to realize that this was written after the cross. “For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them.’” In other words, if you’re going to go back to the Law and try to live by the

Law, you’re also putting yourself back under a curse, in the sense that you’re trying to live up to the Law and that’s not your purpose.

Your purpose is not to live up to the Law. Your purpose is to have faith in Christ. Your purpose is to love God with your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. If you do that, you will fulfill the Law.

Scripture says that the Law is fulfilled in us if we walk according to the law of love. If we love God and love our neighbor, we will fulfill the Law. The Law will be fulfilled in our lives, in us and by us, if we love God and love our neighbors. How do we do that?

That is by having the Spirit of God in us. As the Scripture says, “The love of God has been shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost.”

When His Spirit moves into you, He brings the love of God with Him. That love, love for God and God’s love working His love out through your life, is with you if the Spirit of God lives in you. The more you yield to that, the more He can display that. The more you don’t yield to it, the more you grieve Him.

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

Redeemed from the Curse

He says here, in verse 11:

11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

Again, he’s quoting out of the Old Testament.

12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

“And the Law is not of faith.” The Law has nothing to do with faith. It has to do simply with obedience. “But, The man that doeth them shall live in them.” He is saying that if you live by the Law, you’re going to die by the Law because you can’t live up to the Law.

This is the big one for today. This is the part I was trying to get to.

He says, in verse 13,

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

“Christ hath,” past tense (already done it), “redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

If you go back and read Deuteronomy 28, the whole chapter is about the blessing and cursing of the Law. He says that if you do everything that’s in this Law you’ll be blessed. That’s verses 1-14. He says if you don’t do everything in this Law then you’ll be cursed. That’s verses 15 to 56. There are a lot more curses actually than there are blessings because the blessings are more

14 © 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

general and apply to your whole life whereas the curses are very specific. It said, “Jesus became a curse for us.” That removes the curses and leaves us with the blessings.

Deuteronomy 28 is just an expansion of the blessing that God gave Abraham. What we have to remember is that the reason God can bless us with Abraham is because He put His Spirit within us and with the Spirit comes the Kingdom and with the Kingdom comes every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. It just gets good. Amen?

The first thing you have to ask is: are you redeemed from the curse? Yes. Why? That’s because of Christ. It is not because you live so good that the curse can’t come on you. That’s what most Christians are trying to do.

People say all the time, “Well, I messed up here and because I did this, the curse came upon me and because of that, I’m cursed. I have to get right and once I get right, then the curse can stop, or we can break the curse.”

It’s not even enough in Christian circles today that you sin and get cursed. Now, your granddaddy can sin and the curse comes on you. It’s ridiculous. Even under the Old Testament that stopped. By Ezekiel 18, that had already stopped. God had already said, “No, every person is responsible for themselves.” Then it took a preacher, who apparently needed money from writing a book, to bring curses back on the church.

We need to realize, “We are not cursed.”

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

Ephesians 1:3 says,

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

God said in Ephesians (that’s way after Deuteronomy, and Ezekiel and all of them), “I have been blessed,” have been, past tense; it’s already done. Nobody can take it back. “I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.” Amen? Now, because of that, you cannot be blessed and cursed at the same time. You’re either blessed or cursed. You’ve got to decide what you’re going to be.

For myself, I’ve decided to read the Word of God and believe that Jesus became a curse for me and because of that He removed that curse. I’m in Him, and I keep His commandments. He said in John 15:7,

7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

He said, “If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you…” He went on to say in verse 10,

10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

If we don’t keep His commandments we are not abiding in Him.

In 1 John 2:4, He says that if we don’t keep His commandments, then we are liars and the truth is not in us.

4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Verse 5 says that if we keep His Word (His commandments), we are in Him.

5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

We have to remember that there are a lot of things that come together. If you are in Christ, and if your life is hid with God, in Christ, then your life is hidden. It’s no longer you that live but Christ who lives in you. If your life is hid in Christ, then the devil has to get in Christ and find you before he can curse you. Now, I don’t think the devil is getting in Christ.

Think these things through. Quit believing every negative thing that people try to tell you. People will start saying, “Well, you’re not living right. You’re not living up to par. You’re not doing this just so.” I’m not saying that we can live in sin and just continue to sin the way we did before. If you’re living the same way you did before, you didn’t get born again. It’s just that simple. When you get born again, you’re life changes. That’s why it’s called born again. Your life starts all over. It’s brand new; everything’s new. However, if your life is the same as before, then you’re not born again.

When you get born again and your life starts to change, that doesn’t mean that it is instantly perfect. That’s called sanctification; that’s growing in Christ. You grow and you learn more about Him and the more you look at Him the more you become like Him because you become what you look at. Whatever

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

you focus on, you become. If you focus on the negative, you’ll become negative. It’s just that simple.

In 1 John 4:17 it says,

17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

As you focus on Jesus, looking unto Jesus, then you see what He has provided because “as He is so are we in this world.” You’ve got to get a hold of this. Again, I could go through Scripture after Scripture, but I’m trying to keep it fairly tight.

Now, that being the truth, is He cursed? No, He became a curse and died and at the death a man was freed from the Law, so the minute He died and became a curse for us, that curse was passed onto Him and then when He arose, He arose unto righteousness. He is now the righteous risen King. He’s no longer the curse. He was made a curse, but He is no longer the curse.

If He was still cursed, then you’re still cursed because “as He is so are we.” Even He moved on past the curse. All of the curse of the Law was dumped on Him, and He became the curse; every bit of it. He was completely infected with the curse of the Law.

Every aspect of the curse was put on Him and He took that to the grave. He took it, the Bible says, “Into hell.” Then He arose from the dead and when He arose from the dead, He arose righteous. He left every bit of that curse with the originator of that curse, who was the devil.

He died and went into the grave and He came out of the grave. We go into the water (as He went into the grave), and we come out of the water (as He came out of the grave), therefore baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection. That’s the whole purpose of baptism.

Baptizing in water does not save you. You get baptized in water because you are saved. It’s a sign of your faith, and it is a sign of your death, burial, and resurrection. When you come out you are to live a new life. If you’ve not gone through water baptism, we can do that. Let us know, and we will be glad to set it up.

Baptism is a symbol of that death. When He came out of the grave, He came out for us, and “as He is so are we.” If He came out not cursed, if He came out blessed, and if He came out good, then guess what we are? “As He is so are we in this world.”

It’s no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and died, and gave Himself for me. It’s no longer I that lives. If somebody came to you and said, “Well, you’re cursed,” they just cursed Christ. That’s because you say, “It’s no longer I that live. The life that I now live, I live in Christ.”

Are they going to try to put a curse back on Christ? Is that what they’re going to try to do? People say, “Well, that’s ridiculous.” No. I’m just quoting Scripture and the difference between me and some people is that I actually believe what I read.

Whatever it says, that’s what it says, and I can’t change it just because I don’t want to quit a sin. That’s what most people do. They change a Scripture because they don’t want to get out of sin.

They make it fit them in their life. The reality is that if you get a hold of the life that’s in Christ, it’s not you quitting sin.

People think of quitting sin like trying to quit smoking. It is hard to quit. They can quit 25 times before it sticks. Being born again is not like that. When you get born again, the sin starts falling away and you catch yourself not doing it. You realize, “Oh, man. I haven’t done this in a while.” Why? That’s because that new life is birthed in you. That’s what the new birth is for.

Christianity was not meant to be harder than living under the Law. Christianity was meant to be easier. It was meant to take the burdens off of us; not to add more burdens to us. Jesus made it very clear that when you look at what He said, then sin was much more than just a commission of an act. It went down to the very idea of looking or thinking. He said, “I can change all of that. I’ll put a new heart within you.” That’s the key.

Most people don’t want to get born again because they think, “Well, I have to quit this. I have to quit that.” No. Get born again. It’s amazing when those things start to fall away. (That is if you’re taught the Bible, and if you go to the Bible to see what the Bible says.)

Let’s go back to Galatians chapter 3. I want to read verse 13 again.

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Why did He become a curse for us?

14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

It wasn’t so much about the blessings. It was about the promise of the Spirit and receiving that Spirit. That is the greatest blessing you can get. That’s why people say, “Well, healings are not that important, as long as you get saved.” Well, ask a sick person how important healing is.

In the overall scheme of things, in eternity, yes, of course salvation is the most important thing. Why do we divide salvation into eternal life and healing? Why do we separate them when salvation is all of that? You get the healing, you get the blessing, and you get all of that when you get saved.

You don’t have to pick and choose. It’s not picking one from line A and one from line B when you get saved. It’s all yours. Little by little the devil has to back down.

When you first heard about salvation, somebody probably told you that you could get saved, but then the devil probably tried to tell you, “Yeah, that works for most people, but not for you. You’re a worse sinner than anybody.”

Then, as soon as you found out that the worse sinner you were the greater glory it gave to God when He saved you, then you got saved, and then the devil had to back up a little. The devil said, “Well, I guess they figured that out, so what can I use next?”

The next thing you hear is, “God used to heal, but He doesn’t anymore.” Then you think, “What a minute, I heard a testimony last week that somebody got healed.” Then you hear, “It does

happen from time to time.” See how the devil backs down? “But even if it does happen from time to time, it is only for the super spiritual,” or “It’s only for the real saints. It’s not for you; it’s not for everybody.”

Then you hear that somebody else got saved or somebody else got healed, and then the devil backs up a little bit more. You can then say, “Well, I can be healed.”

The devil says, “Well, they figured that out, so what else can I do? They got saved, and they got healed, but I sure don’t want them having power. I can tell them that Baptism in the Holy Spirit and that speaking in tongues is of the devil.” Think about it; the devil had to come up with that. The devil knows he’s wrong. He tries to scare people by saying, “It’s of the devil.”

As soon as you figure out that it is real for today, and that God wants you to have it, then immediately the devil starts backing up; and backing up; and backing up. The more you find out the truth of the Word of God, the less influence the devil can have on your life.

When people get born again, they’re redeemed of God. People get born again into the Kingdom of God, yet all of these things are still in their lives. Why? That’s because their minds have not been renewed to know that they don’t have to be sick. They don’t even have to get sick and get healed. As good as healing is it’s better to live in health.

Then you find out, “I don’t have to sin. If I sin, it’s because I choose to sin. I don’t have to. Jesus came to redeem me, to save me from my sins; not to save me in my sins.” That’s a big

difference. You start to realize that and the more your mind is renewed, the more the devil keeps backing off.

People can be redeemed and yet their life can be, literally, “full of hell.” Why? That’s because their mind isn’t renewed to know the truth of what’s legal and what’s not. It is not legal for the devil to bring sickness and disease and all these things on you. You say, “Then why does he get to do it?” That’s because he’s a thief. Thieves don’t do things that are legal. It doesn’t say that he doesn’t have the ability; it just says he doesn’t have the authority. You have to decide to tell him, “Not only do you not have the authority, but I’m stopping your ability.”

It’s like I can say, “Okay, I’ll see your ability with my authority, and I’ll raise more ability. Now, not only am I born again, but I have authority as a son of God to be a son of God, and to walk like a son of God. Now I have the ability of the Holy Spirit living in me to act like a son of God and to back up what I’m saying.” You need that.

Now, the devil may have ability, but he doesn’t have authority. You’ve got both. You’ve got the authority and the ability. I know I’m repeating that, but I want you to get it. I’ll be repeating myself a lot. I’m used to it, because I want to drill it into you.

Now, your spirits are good, but your minds need to be renewed to the Word of God. Repetition is the key to renewing the mind. Repetition goes along with action. If you want to make it happen faster, then whatever you hear, keep repeating it and then go and do it. If you just repeat it, you’ll renew your mind, but it will take a long time, but if you’ll just repeat it and go and do it, you will

renew your mind much faster. That’s the key to renewing your mind. We are still in Galatians chapter 3. Let’s go back to verse 14 and include 15 with it:

14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

In other words, he was saying, “Look, even when you have a contract among men, you can’t add to it once it’s signed. Once it’s signed, it’s done.” He was saying, “This law that was given, once it was done away with, it was done away with. Once that curse was done away with, it was done away with; it can’t keep getting added back in.” Don’t let the devil add in what God has excluded.

When you see a contract that has three pages of written material and then four blank pages, and there is a place for you to sign on the last of the blank pages, don’t sign it. They’re going to fill in the blanks after you sign it. Make sure it’s all right there on the papers. That’s what the devil tries to do. The devil tries to come in afterward and say, “Yeah, you’re redeemed, but if you don’t live right, I can come in and torture you.” God did not say that. Let’s go on to verse 16,

16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.” These promises were made to Abraham and his seed. “He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed.” The promise of God was made to Abraham and to his seed, “which is Christ.”

There was a distance of time between Abraham and Christ, but the promise was made to Abraham and to Christ. Now, in-between those two time periods, because man could not live up to the commitment that God wanted from Abraham, there was a little addendum put in there called the Law.

Before Abraham there was no Law. Even way after Abraham there was no Law. The Law didn’t come until 430 years later.

There was a whole period of time when there was no Law. Christians have made that little period of time that the Law was there the central focus of everything, and yet that was not Jesus’ focus. Even He talked about people who were under the Law and people who weren’t under the Law.

Technically, the Law was only given to the Jews. If you weren’t a Jew, you were, as He said, “the heathen.” He said that He was going to save the heathen. If you were the heathen you weren’t even under the Law.

When the heathen get saved in Christ, they try to go back under the Law and become a New Testament Jew. You were never under the Law so don’t go under it.

The Old and New Testament are both the Word of God, but the New Testament is the Christian’s rule of faith and action. The Old Testament is not the Christian’s rule of faith and action. We don’t have to make sacrifices. We’ve had one Sacrifice, once for all, and that was Jesus. Amen? We don’t have to go and kill a lamb, or kill a goat, or anything else. It has already been done for us and we have to realize that. He says in verse 17,

17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

“And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul,” the covenant was made, the Law could not disannul it, “that it should make the promise of none effect.”

Then he goes on and says,

18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

He keeps contrasting the two; it’s either by promise or by Law. How did you get it? That’s what he asked in the beginning, “Did you get it by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith?” Why? That’s because the promise is by faith. The promises that God made to us are by faith.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20, it says,

20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

Here’s the beauty of it: “All the promises of God are in Christ yes, and in Christ, Amen,” or so be it. There’s not a promise that God made in Christ that is not yes and so be it in your life. It’s not even a matter of you finding out if it’s God’s will. All of the promises of God are God’s will for your life in Christ.

It’s not even a matter of saying, “Well, let me see if it’s God’s will that He heal me this time.” No, no, no! That’s a promise of God, in Christ. “By His stripes you were healed;” that was a promise. Because of that, it’s not even a matter of asking if it’s God’s will. It was God’s will or He wouldn’t have put it there.

God is smart enough to know what to put in the contract. He didn’t put things in there by accident. Nobody fooled Him, or twisted His arm and got Him to add something in that He didn’t want to add. Let me say it this way: “There was no pork on this law getting passed.” He got passed exactly what He wanted passed.

In that law that He set out, this covenant was between Jesus and God. Technically, you don’t even have a covenant with God unless you’re in Christ.

If you’re in Christ, your covenant with God is Christ’s covenant with God. It’s not that you have an individual covenant.

Christ had a covenant with God and because of that you got in with Christ, so your agreement with God is the same agreement Jesus had. That’s a pretty good agreement.

What does that mean? Why did He send Jesus? He sent Him to destroy the works of the devil, to seek and save that which was lost. Jesus said, “For this reason He sent me.”

Luke 4:18 says,

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

“He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor.” I could stop right there and preach for awhile. There are some preachers that need to go back and read that verse. It is amazing how every time someone wants to start a church, they want to start one somewhere else. They want to put it where there are no poor people.

I’m telling you, “We have to take the Gospel to the people that are the poorest. They have to become our people.” Why? We don’t go there to get something from them, but to take the Gospel into their area and to change them from being the poorest. They need to understand what it means to be blessed of God so that they can live in the blessings of God and they can rise up and become who God wants them to be. Amen.

I’m not against any place, but I just see so many preachers moving in and they always set up where the money is.

We’ve just got to preach the Gospel to the poor; poor in money, poor in spirit, and poor in everything, obviously. You can be rich but be poor in spirit. The idea is that we can’t ignore the poor and we can’t preach just to people where there’s money. Amen?

We’ve got to reach the poor, we’ve got to reach the hungry, we’ve got to reach the naked, we’ve got to reach the people that are sick,

and those that are hurting. We’ve got to reach those that don’t know the truth, and we’ve got to reach those that don’t know that all of the promises of God, in Christ, are yes and amen.

Go back to Galatians chapter 3, verse 19:

19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

He said in verse 18, “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Verse 19 says, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions.” That was because man would mess up; it had to be put in. The word “till” means until there’s an end. That was, “Till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” Who was that? Jesus. Did He come? Yes. The Law ended 2,000 years ago. Now, we’re in the blessings of God; now we are in the place. Understand that people still need to come into Christ to understand it and walk in His blessings.

Galatians 3:20-21,

20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

The Law could not give life nor could it give righteousness.

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

Verses 22-24:

22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

We are not justified by obedience to the Law but by faith in Christ.

Verses 25-29:

25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

“And if you be Christ’s,” if you belong to Christ, “then are you Abraham’s seed,” because you’re in Him, “and heirs according to the promise.” We are heirs because we’re in Christ. We get the

promise that was made to Abraham by God that was originally made and meant for Jesus.

Notice that Jesus had to receive the Spirit before we could get it. He received the Spirit, and then He left, and He sent the Spirit back so that it could be poured out upon us so we could be as He is in this world.

Galatians 4:1,

1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

Notice what he was saying here: “The heir,” that’s you, if you’re in Christ, “as long as he’s a child...” In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 going into chapter 3, it speaks about being carnally minded, that is, not renewed in your mind; not spiritually mature. As long as you’re a child you differ nothing from a servant. That means that you have to be told what to do and when to do it. You never know what’s going on, you don’t know your Father’s will, and you’re not about your Father’s business. You have to be told what to do because you are a child, even though “you be lord of all”

Did you hear that? He said that if you’re an heir, you’re lord of all. You say, “Now, wait. Jesus is Lord of all.” Quit separating what God has joined together. “As He is so are we in this world.” If He’s Lord of all, then He is Lord of lords and we’re the lords He is

Lord over. If we are as He is in this world, then that means we also are lord of all. Why? That’s because we’re in Him. Quit separating yourself. “It’s no longer I that live.”

“Well, I’m not lord of all.” No, but it’s no longer you that live; it’s Christ that lives in you. Let Christ who is in you, who is Lord of all, live and be Lord of all through you, and you will no longer be under the beggarly elements of this world. What are the beggarly elements of this world? They are all of the things that happen to everybody else. Those things shouldn’t happen to the church. Amen?

I’ve seen my mom go out into her front yard and tell tornadoes, “You will NOT touch my property!” I have seen tornadoes split in half and go around her property. We’ve done the same thing before. We’ve witnessed it. I could give you over a hundred stories on weather where we have just refused to let it happen. Why? That’s because we are not under the beggarly elements of this world. They obey us. Why? That’s because Jesus spoke to the wind and the sea and told them, “Peace. Be still,” so we can say it. Why? That’s because “as He is so are we in this world.”

You say, “Do you really believe that?” “Yes I do. If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t pray.” Amen? We have to realize: that’s who we are.

One of the other beggarly elements of this world is the economy. It is a beggarly element of this world. Do you realize that Satan is the god of this world? That’s what 1 Corinthians says. He is the god of this world’s system. The economy of this world is the world’s system and if you’re going to go by the world’s system, you’re going to be under the beggarly elements of this world.

Don’t go by the elements of this world’s system. Go by the Kingdom system. When you go by the Kingdom system, you’re not affected by the things that go on in this world. Amen?

Some of the economy has been some of the worst in the last few years. Since we’ve had the ministry here, we’ve doubled our staff. This has been in the last year. Why? That’s because we’re growing and we continue to grow. Why? The economy hasn’t affected us one bit. Nothing has changed; we’re moving forward. We don’t make plans based on how much money we have or don’t have. We make plans based on the will of God. We look at what God’s will is. We move in that direction and we move into it, and whatever we need is there when we need it. It’s not because I’m a preacher. Lots of preachers out there are struggling because they don’t understand Kingdom principles.

I’m telling you, “We’re not struggling.” Why? That’s because: number one, we have our hands up to God. We hold onto Him and we hold onto the people in the world that need help. The blessings that He pours through us don’t stop here. We don’t dam up the blessings of God. The river of God flows through us to the people that need help. God blesses us, and it flows through; it doesn’t stop here.

We’re not about this building. We’re already making plans to increase our outreaches. I’ve got some things I’ll be sharing with you in the near future.

My wife and I went to downtown on Saturday. Believe it or not, the people you see on Sunday when you go down there and hand out food were there on a Saturday, too, and people weren’t handing out food. Honestly, feeding 1 meal out of 21 in a week isn’t good

enough. Now, we’re feeding about 100 meals every time we go down there, but that isn’t good enough. Those people get hungry three times a day, seven days a week. We can’t just feed them one meal every other Sunday and placate our conscience, just to try and make ourselves feel good about ourselves. We’ve got to change lives. We’ve got to feed these people. There are people down there that are cold and hungry. We’ve got to touch their lives.

As we were down there watching the people I said, “We have got to do something.” My wife said, “Curry, you can’t save the world.” I said, “Jesus did. We’ve got to do more.” She said, “You’re going to spread yourself too thin.” I said, “I can’t do it all; I don’t expect to do it all. I expect the people of God to rise up and do it.” Amen?

We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to see to these people. This can’t be just about church. We can’t be the pretty people that dress right and say everything right for an hour on Sunday. We’ve got to touch the world. We’ve got to make a difference in this world, and it can’t just be, “I want to preach to you.” It can’t be just preaching. We’ve got to fill their bellies. We’ve got to get them warm. We’ve got to be able to touch lives. We’ve got to do this.

Paul was saying that, as children, we are under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. Let’s continue in Galatians chapter 4. We will go over verse 3 again and continue on:

Galatians 4:3-7,

3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Because you’re a son He sends His Spirit.

7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

“Wherefore thou art no more a servant,” having to be told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, “but a son,” no longer a servant, “and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

We could go on and on but I just wanted to get to this point. I want you to realize that we’re not servants that have to be told what to do. We can actually choose to do the right thing. Why? That’s because His Spirit is in us. We can see what needs to be done, and we don’t have to spend forty days seeking God’s will about doing it. We can move on the things of God because it is His Spirit that lets us see.

The Bible is clear when it says that our Gospel is hid; it is hid to those in whom the god of this world (Satan) has blinded their eyes. When we came to the light of Jesus Christ, our eyes were not blinded and we were able to see the way God sees.

The Bible is clear when it says, “Our Gospel is hid.” It is hid to those, in whom the god of this world (Satan) has blinded their eyes. When we came to the light of Jesus Christ, our eyes were not

blinded and we began to see the way God sees. When we see people, we see them the way God sees them, and when we see the hungry, God sees the hungry.

Mark 11:22-24 says,

22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Someone suggested that we name our endeavor “Homeless Outreach.” I can tell you, I don’t like the term. I believe that what I say comes to pass, according to Mark 11:22-24.

22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

I’m not going to keep calling them Homeless. That’s because the longer I do, the harder it makes for me and for them to come out of that. I started seeing that when we went downtown on Saturday.

It was the strangest thing because I actually woke up Saturday morning and I knew I had to go there. It was weird. As we left the house, I told my wife, “We are going downtown,” and she said, “We have a lot we need to get done today.” I said, “Well, we’re going downtown.” We went down there, and it was good.

I want you to see it in a visual. My son is going to make up a visual thing for you all to see. What I saw was all of these people that we see when we go downtown. They were sitting around in clothing that was not appropriate for the weather. They were not dressed right and they were just not looking good. I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just the way it is, but it was like I could see them.

Then, I remembered the last time we had gone down there. Alejandra was preaching to some guys on that street, right by the bridge. My daughter, Christel, had sat down on one side and I was standing by the cars. I was standing behind Christel, so the guys were facing us and listening to her while she was preaching to them.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I saw that same picture, but when I looked at their faces, I didn’t see the people I had seen before. I saw the face of Jesus on every one of those people. He said, “If you do it to the least of these, you do it to Me.” On each one of them I saw the face of Jesus. I decided right then, “We’ve got to start feeding Jesus. He can’t go hungry. He can’t be cold. We’ve got to feed Jesus.”

I don’t want to make this some campaign slogan; it’s got to go beyond that. We’ve got to realize that when we feed these people, we’re feeding Jesus. Instead of calling them “Homeless,” I want us to talk about feeding Jesus, and I want to talk about clothing Jesus. There are some other things we’re looking at so that we will be able to help.

We’re not stacking up money in the bank. Our Outreach right now has $1700 in it, but I plan for it to be gone in the next couple of weeks. There’s no reason to have that money sitting there when people down there need help. Any money that comes in I expect to go out.

This church is going to be tithing into that from the offering that comes in. We’re going to tithe into that aspect of the ministry. We’re going to start reaching those people and touching their lives.

I expect that account to be empty every week and at the same time, I am expecting God to fill it up and increase it every week. We are starting this movement, but we’re going to need more help. We’re going to need more of you to show up and go down there with us to help do this work.

Galatians 6:10 tells us,

10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

What would you want to have done for you if you were in their position? You would want clothing and food. We’re going to be feeding people, but we need all types of clothing. My wife and I went to Wal-Mart last night and bought some gloves, some socks and some other things. The two places where heat leaves the body

the fastest are the feet and the head so we got some caps, and some socks for them. We bought all of the thermal clothing that they had left. We brought all of it in for the outreach.

We need anything you can bring in. We’ve gotten a lot more blankets in. Bring in blankets, clothing, coats, or anything that you think would be of help. You can bring food in, especially things that don’t have to be cooked. We’re eventually going to start pantries so we can have places where families that need food can come in and get food and take it back home. A lot of the things we’re gathering now are for the people that can’t cook. We need bags of chips and things that are in packages so that we can just hand them out. We need things that we don’t actually have to make. We’ll be looking at that more as we go along.

Another project that we have going is the Senior Outreach. We are going to be going to a couple of facilities in the area. There are 100 plus residents in each and there’s an open door to minister room to room, so we’re going to go through and minister to these people. For those that want to take part in this, we have directions printed and available on the day of the outreach. We have stuffed animals and other supplies that will be provided on the day of the event. We’re going to lay hands on them and pray over them. They’re going to become, not prayer cloths, but prayer animals. We’re going to be able to hand those to the people and pray with them and minister to them.

If you want to minister, this is your chance to get started. Get out there, maybe you’ve never done it before, but this is your chance.

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

Redeemed from the Curse

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

BLESSINGS ARE ADDED, NOT CHASED

Sunday Morning Broadcast given by Curry R. Blake at Dominion Life International Apostolic Church

Let’s look at Deuteronomy, chapter 28. We’re still talking about being redeemed from the curse. Jesus was made a curse for us so that we might be redeemed from the curse. You need to realize that redemption is a fact, that you are redeemed, and that you have been bought back.

When I talk about Jesus giving His life as a ransom, you might picture it as a thriller action movie where they have a prisoner exchange. They always, somehow, end up on a bridge. They’re at opposite ends and they each have to send their prisoner to the other side. In order to reach the other side, the prisoners have to walk past each other. That’s what happened with you and Jesus.

Satan held you captive and the Father had His Son, Jesus, and they met on this bridge, so to speak. At the right time, you and Jesus started walking past each other, and He went to take your punishment so that you could live with your heavenly Father. His life was given as a ransom.

Sometimes I think that we don’t take the ransom that He paid seriously, because we say, “Well, we know that He died, but then He rose and went back to God.” We act as though that was just some little thing, but we have to realize what He actually went through during that process. The result of it was no little thing. He

gave Himself. Here was this perfect, absolutely pure, divine Being, who decided to give Himself for the most wretched, awful person that ever existed. It was not only for one but for all of them together, which was all of us, and because of that He gave His life as a ransom.

When you look at Deuteronomy 28, it talks about these blessings and curses. Like I said, I’m just going to hit highlights here because I want you to just get the idea behind it. You can study it for yourself. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 1 it says,

1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Notice: you as a believer have hearkened unto the voice of the Lord your God. He bid you come and you came to Him. He said that you must believe on Jesus Christ and you have done that. The same thing took place with all of these blessings. He’s just detailing the blessings that come with being right with God.

The amazing thing is that if you look at Jesus’ life, it exemplified all of these blessings. He lived in all of these blessings. In other words, any blessing that is listed here that He needed was provided as He needed it because He hearkened unto the voice of the Lord, His God. He hearkened unto Him, did everything pleasing to the Father, and walked according to the Law, perfectly.

This is not all of the blessings. These are just detailing some of the things, but it’s not all of them. It would take way more than just this passage here to be able to detail every possible blessing that you could have in your life. You should at least take these, go through them, and apply them to your life. That’s because he says in verse 3,

Deuteronomy 28:3

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

That’s saying that anywhere you go you’re blessed. It’s not about going to the right place; it is who’s going there. You’re blessed wherever you go. I hear this all the time, “Well, we have to find out where God’s blessing is and go there.” Not really. God’s blessing is on us; wherever we go we should be a blessing. We are to be salt and light to the world and wherever we go we’re to bring salt and light into the world, so wherever we go the blessing of God should be on us.

We have to think differently.

Think about Jesus. We have the mind of Christ and His mind is to be in us; and we are to let His mind dwell in us richly in all wisdom, according to what the Word says. Think in terms of what Jesus did. He was with the Father according to John 1:1.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God and was God. He was there with God from the very beginning. He was in heaven; that’s a good place. He wasn’t

lacking anything; it was good. In the words of Keith Green, “He decided to move to this trash can called earth.” It wasn’t created a trash can. It was created perfect, but then man fell and it degenerated and degraded after that, but compared to heaven, earth was a trash can.

It’s just amazing when you look at what Jesus did and what He gave up to come here. He gave up heaven; living there with all that we’re all trying to get to; where we all want to be some day. He gave that up to come and live here.

You’ve got to admit that when the devil said, “Oh, if you’ll just bow your knee and I’ll give you all of this,” Jesus was thinking, “Really? That’s what you’re tempting Me with? Do you know where I’ve been? Do you know what I’ve seen?” That couldn’t have been very impressive, and to think, He moved from there to here by choice. Why? That’s because He wanted us; He wanted to move into the middle of us. Think about that.

Hopefully you have an idea where I’m going with this, because that would be similar to you saying, “I know we’re almost finished paying off the house, but I really think that in order to show the people that need Jesus’ love the most, there’s a bridge we need to live under.” I’m not asking anybody here to move out of their house and move under a bridge. We’re trying to get the people under the bridges to move into houses. We’re trying to bless them.

We ought to be able to have a presence in an area. The government has social services that do some good.

We can’t just be another social group. We can’t go downtown and just feed people. We’ve got to bring “life.” We’ve got to bring the

blessings of God to these people. We can’t just feed them and, like I said, placate our consciences. We’ve got to be able to do more than that. We’ve got to be able to reach these people, but we’ve got to reach them with the whole truth. We’ve got to touch them spirit, soul, and body. Every human is a three-fold being.

We can’t just help their bodies. It is good if you get them healed; it’s wonderful and it shows the power of God, but you can’t just get them healed and leave them to die and go to hell. You’ve got to be able to touch them to the point where they will listen to the truth. That truth has to literally saturate them or permeate them to the point where they actually get a hold of the truth and choose to follow it. We have to be able to do all three.

That’s what Jesus did. He moved from heaven to here. It would be like you living in the fanciest house in Dallas and just walking away from it, and moving under a bridge just so you could be around those people so you could talk with them. That’s literally like what Jesus did; even more amplified.

We have to be able to know that our hearts are with the people who don’t have anything, but it can’t be just that. Again, it has to be spirit, soul, and body. We can’t just go down there and just preach to them. We’ve got to help their bodies. We’ve got to help them physically; we’ve got to get them healed. We’ve got to fill their stomachs and clothe them, but we also have to renew their minds.

I was a corrections officer for the State of Texas and worked at the Walls Unit down in Huntsville back when they had Sparky. Old Sparky is in a museum now, but I was there whenever it was still in use. My dad was a corrections officer and he was in police work. I was in the Air Force in Security Police before I was a

corrections officer. The one thing we saw, especially in the correctional system, is that when a person is in there for a period of time, there comes a point where they adjust and they can function; they can live there. In other words, they can make it through their time; whether it’s 18 months, 5 years, or 10 years. Whatever it is, they learn to adjust and to function.

There’s also another thing that you see. After a person has been in there for a certain period of time, many of them become what is called, “Institutionalized.” It’s a different time period with different people. They get to a point where they are more at home in a system like that, than they are on the street. Many times they will get out of prison and they will walk to the first store and try to rob it, just so they can get sent right back in, because they don’t know how to function in the real world anymore.

You can be institutionalized to a lot more than the correctional system. There are people who, once they live on the street so long, become institutionalized to the street. They learn how to function, and they learn all of the cons; they learn what to say and they learn how to say it. Honestly, even though there is another part of them that doesn’t necessarily want that, that’s how they survive. Many times you have to get past that. You have to be able to talk to them.

I made a commitment a long time ago. God was dealing with me about helping people who stood on corners and held signs. He was telling me that I should help them, and I had all the reasons why I shouldn’t. They were just going to buy alcohol, or drugs, or cigarettes with it.

The biggest reason I used was, “Well, God, this is Your money and I don’t want them wasting Your money.” Then God said, “Well, if it’s My money why aren’t you giving it to them like I’m telling you to instead of arguing with Me over it?”

I made a commitment that I would never pass by a person like that who needed help without helping them. I started doing that on a regular basis.

You know that they have a spiel. They have some story that they use that is meant to pull the most money they can get from a person. That’s how they survive. Once you’ve already decided what you’re going to do, you start talking to them. You approach them instead of waiting for them to approach you.

They’ll start with their spiel. They’ll start telling you, “Yeah, my car’s broken down two blocks down and my wife and my kids are there.” I respond by saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop! I’m giving you money. I don’t need your story, especially if it is a lie. I’m going to help you, but I’m helping you because Jesus lives in me, not because of any story you give me. I’m not giving to you based on an emotional response to your story. If I gave on an emotional response, I would probably just call the police, so I’m not giving based on that. I’m giving to you to help you because Jesus helped me and because of that I want to pay it forward to you. I want to help you.”

A lot of times I’ll tell them that I’ll buy them food or I’ll take them to eat. If you take them somewhere to eat, you don’t eat; they eat and you talk while they eat. You preach to them while they eat. Whether they listen or not, you have a chance to really talk with that person. It takes a while to get it through their head that you

want to help. They don’t have to come up with a reason why you should help them, and it shocks them. I say, “I really don’t need your story. I just want to help you.”

There comes a place where, because of the blessings in our lives, we can’t see how a person could get there. Honestly, most of the people that are there are there because of the way they lived or something they did. Many of them got themselves there, probably by bad habits and bad choices.

Sometimes it could be the result of the economy’s downturn. They lose their house; sometimes when they lose their house, they lose their spouse and then they end up on the street. Then it just goes down from there. Sometimes it’s other things.

One time I met a man whose wife got sick. He had some heavy bills and they actually lost their house over trying to pay her medical bills. They took the house because he couldn’t pay the bills and then she died after that, and he was left with nothing. He had no kids. Sometimes it’s just a series of things like that.

From what I see in the Bible, it really doesn’t tell me to help based on the circumstances or how they got there. I don’t like the term, “But for the grace of God, there go I,” because that’s saying God had grace on me, but not on them and that’s not true.

It is by the grace of God that anybody has anything or that everybody is not in that situation. In Deuteronomy 28, He says, “If you will listen to Me, I will bless you.” A lot of people just don’t know that.

When we had our church over in Mesquite years back in ‘05, there was a guy that came up to the church. We were there every day.

He would come in and he would ask for food or money. Really, he wanted money. We would buy food for him or we would take him to eat with us. As a group, we would all go to eat lunch, so we would take him with us. We also bought different things for him.

Once he said, “If I could just get to Shreveport, I could get on my feet because I have family there.” We went down and bought him a bus ticket, gave him some money, bought him lunch, and put him on the bus. Less than 48 hours later, he was back at our church. He went down, visited somebody, and came back.

At that point, I started asking God, “God, what am I going to do with this guy? Am I just supposed to support him from now on? He keeps coming around. He keeps asking for a handout. I don’t mind doing it, but for how long? How does this work? He’s going to keep coming around and he’s starting to depend on us to take care of him.”

God just very clearly said, “What’s that to you?”

I knew better than to use the response, “It’s Your money and I’m trying to do right by it.” I had already used that before and it didn’t work, so I said, “Well, we could keep doing that, but then what?”

He said, “The reason he’s looking to you is because he doesn’t know Me. He sees you like you see Me.”

I started thinking about that, and I started to realize what He meant. He said, “Your job is to get him to see Me the way you see Me, and once you do that, then he’ll be looking to Me and not to you. These people don’t know Me, but you do. Until they do, you have to help them and let them see Me through you.”

It was a time when there were some changes and things going on in my life. I was raised up in a particular theological area where we didn’t really think that way.

You need to realize that these blessings will come on you.

Let’s look at verse 3 again.

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

“Blessed in the city, and blessed in the field.” That just about wraps it up, doesn’t it? If you’re not in the city, you’re in the field. He could have said, “You’ll be blessed everywhere you go,” and that would have done it, but then He goes further with that and says in verse 4,

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

He is just giving you a definition of what He just said in verse 3. He’s just explaining it and bringing it out.

Verses 5 and 6:

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

Well, that’s pretty much all of the time. When I read that, I think of my son years back. I didn’t raise my children religiously. As a matter-of-fact, I raised them Christian, but I raised them to

question religious sacred cows and that kind of thing; just little clichés that people threw out that didn’t have a meaning.

I give thanks to God for my whole life. You have no idea how blessed I am. First of all, I should be dead but I’m not. Amen? That alone is a blessing of God, so I’m extremely thankful.

Then for God to give us increase and influence in the world like He’s done, it’s phenomenal. He took somebody like me who, honestly, nobody had any use for. Nobody would give me an opportunity but God did.

That’s the reason I’ve told people, “I just want to be the person I was looking for because when I was looking for a person, there wasn’t anyone out there.” I just want to be that person.

It has come back a time or two to bite us, as they would say, because everybody doesn’t always have good intentions. The bottom line is that I don’t want to get tainted to that. I don’t want to get jaded by it and make somebody else suffer because of what one person did. I want to still be open and still give people opportunity to move forward.

Speaking of my son, I didn’t raise him to be religious in these things. We give thanks for food and things, but it isn’t a ritual thing and if we don’t pray before we eat, we don’t say, “Oh, stop! Spit the food out because we didn’t give thanks for it.” It isn’t like that; it is just a matter of living in thanksgiving. We are thankful, but we don’t always say “thanks” before we eat.

I remember we were somewhere and there were some people there that were really religious. My son had already started eating. I would have been eating had I not been talking, but I was talking so

I hadn’t started to eat. However, he had already started eating. This person reached over and touched his arm and said, “Don’t eat that. We haven’t said grace or given thanks yet.” He said, “Don’t you want to bless the food?” I’ll never forget. My son said, “My Bible tells me, ‘Blessed coming in and blessed going out.’” There was such a look of shock on their faces when he said that; it was worth it.

When I read that verse, I just automatically go back to that. Someday when I write a Bible commentary, and you see that, you’ll know what’s coming up on that verse.

He said, in verse 7,

7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

You can go through each one of these in your life and say, “I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. These are spiritual blessings, so I’m blessed with these, so these apply to me, whether I’m in the city or in the field, I am blessed. Whether I’m going in or coming out I’m blessed. Whatever I own is blessed.”

A lot of times people get into this thing where they have to bless something when they get it. We rent our house and one of the first things people ask is, “Well, have you gone through and blessed it?” I’m not against that, but honestly, I believe this verse, because if I’m in it, it’s blessed.

I don’t go through my house just because someone lived there before and chase things out. I don’t go in and anoint with oil. I’m not saying it’s wrong. Please understand; I’m not against that. If

you did it, that’s fine. If there are things going on when you move into a house, you might want to do that, or you might want to believe that because you’re there it’s blessed and those things will be driven out. It’s a way of living.

I got into this mode where I believed that I had to say certain things. Actually, I was raised to plead the blood over my family, over my life, over my car, and over my house. Plead the blood, plead the blood, and plead the blood. Even though I couldn’t find it in the Bible, I was trained that way. You never want to say anything against the blood, so you just go along with it. I was looking at that at one time and I got into that.

Every morning when I got up I would say, “Father, I thank You for protection. I thank You for protecting my life. I thank You for protecting my family, my wife, my kids, my house, and my things.” I got into the habit of doing that and I was doing it all the time. Then one day I didn’t and I went about my business that day.

I remember we had a 1974 Cordova. Do you remember those? The doors were really long. When you opened up the doors, and if you were parked on the road, they would cover half the road. They were the longest doors I’ve ever seen on a car. I was downtown Sherman and I got out of this car on that day, and as I was getting out, I was standing with the door open and I was standing inside the door. I think I was getting some things out of the car. It was a strange thing because it felt, literally, like somebody put their hand on my back, shoved me, and I went face first into the car. As soon as I went into the seat of that car, a car hit my door. If I had not been pushed out of the way, the car would have hit me.

It hit my door and it bent it to where it wouldn’t shut. Well, the door was already long. You ought to try driving home with an open door. It’s not that easy, because you have to gauge everything. I tried to shut it, but it was bent and I couldn’t shut it.

I went back home and I was looking at it and I was thinking, “How did this happen to me?” I didn’t have a second car. I didn’t have enough money to fix this car. I didn’t have anything like that and I kept asking, “How did this happen? How did this happen to me?” I started asking God, “Why? Why? Why?”

God took me back to that morning, and He said, “See this?” I said, “Oh, yeah. I forgot to pray the prayer.” I said, “But, okay God, where’s the grace?” I really had a problem with that.

God spoke to me, and He said, “I didn’t set that up. You set that up. Your faith was not in Me. Your faith was in your daily confessing that your things would be protected. That was the rule you lived by; the rule you set. I didn’t tell you to set that rule. The rule you set is the one that you’ll be judged by.”

I learned, right then. I can tell you, “I’m blessed. I’m blessed. I’m blessed going in and coming out. I’m blessed everywhere; everything I have is blessed.” I don’t pray protection over those things. When I head out on a trip, I don’t stop and say the “traveling mercies prayer.” I don’t do that. There is nothing wrong with it, if that’s what you want to do. I expect God to protect me because He said He would, so it’s not based on whether I said it that morning.

When He said, “Put on the whole armor of God,” He never said take it off. I don’t know why we think that somehow, in the

middle of the night, it disappears. Think about that. If it disappears, if you take off the helmet of salvation while you sleep, you’re not saved. If you die in your sleep without it, you’re going to go to hell, so don’t take off the helmet of salvation; sleep with it on. If you get up in the morning and you put that back on, that means that somewhere in the night it came off. Just expect it to be there. He says, “Put it on. Put on the whole armor of God.” Expect it to be there.

I don’t expect there to be a time when I’m not saved. I don’t expect there to be a time when I’m not righteous. I don’t expect there to be a time when I don’t have the Gospel of truth. I expect to have truth, I expect the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, to speak through me, to teach me, to guide me, to lead me into all truth not partial truth; all truth. Whenever I speak, I expect to tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. Amen?

People say, “Well you know, nobody has all of the truth.” I don’t expect to teach you half truth and half falsehood. I spend time with God, but it is not just trying to come up with a message, because I don’t do that. I spend time with God and what ya’ll get is the overflow or the outflow of the time I spend with God in studying, reading and just walking with God.

Those of you who know me see me walking around. I’m not always walking around super spiritual saying, “Oh, don’t talk to me. I’ve just got to stay protected. I’ve got to stay holy.” Ya’ll know that I’m not that way. I’m normal. I live a normal life. I look at Jesus’ life, how He walked, and how He talked with people. People touched Him.

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries

Things were going on around Him and He got jostled around. He didn’t have to be so spiritual that He wasn’t functional in everyday life. He even had an idea of when it was time to pay taxes. He said, “Yes, pay taxes.” “Peter, go fishing.” He knew things that had to be done. He didn’t say, “Oh, don’t bother Me with that; I’m too spiritual for that.” He didn’t say that.

We have to realize that Christianity was not meant to be a religion among people. It was meant to be the lifestyle of people. It was meant to be the life of people. Christians are what the world is supposed to look like when they look like Jesus. There is not supposed to be a difference. It’s not supposed to be an idea.

This building is not a temple. We are the temple and if we all got up and moved across into that parking lot across the street, that’s where the Spirit of God would be. The Spirit of God doesn’t care one bit about this building. He does not care.

If you ever go into a place where somebody has on some strong perfume and they’re walking along and you walk through their tailwind, as we would say, you would smell that perfume. You would ask, “Where did that come from?” That was because somebody walked past and they had on strong perfume. That’s the way it should be. If somebody buys a car from you, that car should stay blessed, at least for awhile. If the buyers are Christian, then it should stay blessed. They should be blessed because they buy something from you.

We should be like Abraham and say, “Guess what? I’m going to give you the best end of the deal because if I give you the best end of the deal, God will make sure I get a better deal. He’ll make sure I’m taken care of and because I’m taken care of, I can give you a

better deal.” It’s hard to beat a person who is like that because they’re never beat. People think, “Well I can take advantage of a person like that.” You can’t take advantage of a person like that.

You can’t steal from me because I’ll give you anything you ask for. If I give you money, it’s not a loan. I don’t loan money because the Bible says that if you loan money, then the person who borrows it becomes subject to the lender. I don’t want somebody subjected; I don’t want that. If I give to you, then God is able to give to me and when I need help I’ll get help. That’s just the way it works.

When you live that way, your life gets blessed and people look at you and say, “How does that work?” That’s because people don’t know what goes on. People might think that we’ve got money stacked up, but it’s not that way. I’ll tell you this, “What I need I have when I need it, because God has it.”

I want you to realize: you can go through all of these blessings. Every one of these is an individual blessing. Go to verse 12. It says,

12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13 And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Then, everything shifts. Through verse 14, He says, “I’ll bless you, I’ll bless you, I’ll bless you,” and gives you all of the details. Then, He goes on to say,

15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

Basically, it just reverses. It tells all that God said He would give them if they followed Him in verses 1-14. Then He tells them what is going to happen if they don’t follow Him. He goes through the whole thing. It’s amazing all the details that He goes through, but there’s so much in here that’s good.

You can take all of this and look at it. You can live your life based on it and you can get very legalistic, but it will be good. You can say, “Okay. You said I’d be blessed like this. I’m redeemed and I’m blessed so this is the blessing I need right now. I’m not seeing that blessing, so in the name of Jesus, I expect this blessing in my

life. You said it and I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, which is believe on Jesus, and I’m walking in Him. If I am found lacking, cleanse me of that and take care of it and help me to show growth. In the meantime, I know that You will treat me well.”

God treats you like He would treat Jesus. Even if you mess up, God will still treat you well, but then the devil will come in and say, “Yeah, you messed up, but here’s what I can do.” You say, “Well, if I mess up then that gives the devil room to come in.” God didn’t say the devil could come in; you just said he could come in. Do you get that? That’s a rule that you set so you need to walk in line with the Word of God. You need to know that you’re blessed of Him even if you mess up.

The Bible doesn’t say a righteous man never falls. It says he falls seven times, but he rises eight. A righteous man can make a mistake but he always gets back up. How do you know when a person falls? You can’t look at a person who falls and say he’s not righteous. You have to wait to see if he gets up or not. You say, “If I have to wait until he gets up, then I can never make that judgment if he doesn’t get up.” You shouldn’t judge. It’s just real simple.

We could take all of these verses, Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and then say, “If I mess up, I’ve got to go from 15 to 68.” There are a lot more curses there than there are blessings. Jesus became all of those. Every one of these curses in here Jesus became so that it doesn’t sit on you.

You can go through and study all of these, and they’re good to define, but you can do something that’s easier. You can go to Matthew chapter 6, verse 25. Jesus is speaking here and He says,

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

He didn’t say for you not to make plans. He just said for you not to get so wrapped up in it that it is what you think about and dwell upon all day long so that it becomes a burden to you.

He said in verse 26,

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Listen to that: the birds don’t sow, yet they reap. However, the biggest thing in the church right now is that you have to sow for your healing. “Sow for this thing” or “sow for your blessing.” No. You have a heavenly Father. You are not relegated to earthly laws of sowing and reaping. Now, it will work. If you’re not born again use it, but if you’re born again, you have a heavenly Father. Even if you don’t get a chance to sow, you can still reap.

You say, “Well, I’m down so low; I don’t have enough to sow,” and that is alright. You have a heavenly Father who will meet your needs even if you can’t sow. He said in verse 26, “Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?”

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

This is one of the few times when He actually said, “O ye of little faith.” It was in reference to you not trusting God to take care of your daily needs. It wasn’t even about healing or anything like that. It was just saying, “You have a heavenly Father. Trust Him where you are, right now.” It was not talking about spiritual things.

Some say, “We take care of physical things and handle them, but God takes care of the spiritual things.” No, God takes care of all of your things. He wants to be your heavenly Father. That means over all. He wants to take care of everything. He said that they had little faith if they didn’t trust Him for the daily things; not the spiritual needs.

In Matthew 6:31, He said,

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

He was not saying, “Don’t think about eating or drinking.” He was saying, “Don’t let that be all you think about and worry about.”

There are people who have pantries full of food and they’re still worried that they are going to run out. Honestly, that falls in the category of covetous and gluttonous, because no matter what, you never think you have enough. No matter what you store up, you

don’t have enough. If Jesus can take a meal, a lunch sack from a little boy, and feed a crowd of 5,000, I think He can handle whatever you need. Whenever you run out, you’ll have what you need.

We were talking about that the other day, and people were saying, “Well, do you have enough of this? Do you have enough of that? You never know what’s going to happen.” I said, “Well, whatever I need I have.” It’s not what you’ve got; it’s what you can carry. Most people have a lot more than they can carry. You have to get to a place where you realize that whatever you need will be there when you need it. Like I said before, “If I get in my car to go on a trip and I run out of gas, I figure that by the time I coast to a stop, there will be a gas can sitting there full of gas.”

You say, “Well, I don’t know how you could believe that.”

“Because I believe I’m about my Father’s business.” This isn’t a job; this is His business. He takes care of it. If He doesn’t want me to go, then He isn’t going to provide for it.

Verse 32 is the verse I really wanted to get to. He goes on to say, 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

When you see the word, “Gentiles,” you know that they were the people who didn’t know God. He said they were the people that worried about what they were going to eat and what they were going to wear. If you’re worrying about your everyday natural needs, you’re thinking like a heathen who doesn’t have a God. That’s what He’s trying to tell you. He said, “For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.”

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

In other words, “You have things coming up, but don’t worry about all of those things.” I’m not saying you don’t have problems. I’m not saying things don’t come up and I’m not saying that you don’t have to address those things, but you address them by faith in God.

Ignoring things is not faith. If you have a tumor and you ignore it, you could die. The bottom line is that it could happen. Having faith is not ignoring it. Sometimes people say, “Well, you’re just ignoring it.” No. There’s a difference, but only you know if you’re ignoring it or if you’ve dealt with it in the Spirit by faith. That’s because when you’ve dealt with it in the Spirit by faith, sometimes people around you will think you’re ignoring it.

That’s because they’ll want to talk about it and you’ll say, “I’ve already dealt with that.” You know they can see it, but you say, “No, it’s dealt with.” They will say, “Well, how’s it dealt with? I still see it.” “Well you won’t.” “Why? How do you know I won’t?” “That’s because I’ve dealt with it. You believe what you see and I’ll see what I believe.” Do you see the difference?

I’m not talking about ignoring things. You deal with them, but you deal with them in the Spirit and when you deal with them in the Spirit, then later other people will see it. Don’t judge your faith by what other people see and don’t let other people try to determine your faith. You determine your faith in God.

Go back there to verse 32,

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Did you notice what He said? He speaks of things. God knows you have need of things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

God knows you have need of things and He’s not against you having things. He just doesn’t want your mind always on the things. He wants your mind on Him, on His Kingdom, and on His righteousness.

Let me ask you this: are you the righteousness of God in Christ? If you are, that means that you have had to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. That means that all of these things have been added unto you because you can’t be more faithful than God. If you are faithful to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness then these things shall be added unto you. If you did your part, He did His part. When did the things get added to you? You say, “Well I'm still looking for the things”

Ephesians 1:3 says,

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

The minute you sought Him and got born again those things were added to your account, right then. They’re sitting in your account.

How many of those you see in your life will be strictly up to you. You have to believe that it’s already done; you have to believe that God has already provided for you, and then you thank Him for it. You begin to expect that whatever you need will be there when you get there.

If God showed you what He had planned for your life, most of you wouldn’t want to step into it because it would be so big. God has much bigger plans for you than you do, and He will start talking to you about things.

You might think, “Well, I would just be satisfied if I had this thing,” and He would say, “I wouldn’t.” That’s what He told me; that’s how He got me over the finance thing. I had a real issue against money because there had been so much about the excess in the church on TV. There were programs on TV about it. It got to where I would avoid it. I just didn’t want to talk about it. I just didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It just turned my stomach because of the way I would see things done.

Then He started talking to me. At that point it was more along the lines of, “Okay, if I get my bills paid, if I feed my family, and if we have clothes, we’re good.” Then God said, “Well, okay, but what if a missionary needs help? Do you have money to pay a missionary? Do you have money for missions? What about building Bible schools? Don’t you think I want you to build Bible schools?” “Yeah.” “Don’t you think I want you to support missionaries in other countries?” “Well, yeah.” He said, “Well, don’t you know that takes money?” “Yeah.”

He went down this list of things. He said, “I want you to pay your bills on time.” I said, “Yeah, that’s true, because we should have a

good reputation in the community.” He said, “Okay, so you need money to pay bills and meet the needs of your family.” “Yeah, that’s true. We need these.”

He said, “You want to build a Bible school in several other countries, and you want to support orphanages.” “Yeah.” He said, “That’s a whole lot more money than just for your family.” He said, “You are just being selfish and chicken.” He said, “You’re being chicken because you were afraid if you tried to use your faith on it you wouldn’t get it, so you didn’t want to try.” He said, “Trust Me and I will do great things through you that you never even imagined you could do.”

Right now, we have churches being planted all over the world. We are supporting three different orphanages in two different countries. We’re supporting missionaries. My goal is to have our Bible school completely free for anybody, anywhere, who can go online and get it. We want to put it out there and make it free for people.

I do not believe that money should determine whether somebody gets the Word of God. I do not believe that! I don’t believe that is God’s will. I don’t want to stand before God and have Him say, “I gave you the technology and you were holding out for cash.” That’s not my heart. We’re in that place where we want to start being able to do this and start broadcasting the Bible school live during the day, so anybody can tune in. They can get on the internet and see it. We’re heading in that direction.

God wants to do more, and I have started seeing that. That means that He’s already blessed me with all these spiritual blessings and He’s blessed you. Why? He’s blessed us because we sought first

His Kingdom and His righteousness. We were made His righteousness.

He says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. It says, “All these things…” What things? Everything He just mentioned; clothing, food, housing, whatever you needed. He gives all of that because He doesn’t want you to have to think about those things. He doesn’t want you to have to worry about them. He doesn’t want you to work two jobs to take care of your house. He wants you to be able to take care of your house and have a team of people working for you so that you can spend your time downtown on the streets handing out food to the homeless.

He said, “You’re going to be the head and not the tail.” That means that you should run a business and you ought to be operating business that can bless the Kingdom. Do you get the idea of what I’m trying to say?

“Seek first His Kingdom and these things will be added to you.” They were added to you when you got born again. You’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

We learned what spiritual blessings are from Deuteronomy 28. He showed us what the spiritual blessings are and they include the blessing of your crops, your fields, and your animals. Those are spiritual blessings that have natural effects. That’s the way you’re supposed to be. Your car should be blessed, your house should be blessed, and your animals should be blessed.

Please work on getting your animals blessed and don’t call me to do it. I get calls all the time to pray for cats, dogs, and all kinds of

© 2013 Curry R. Blake – John G. Lake Ministries 67

animals. I pray for humans. You pray for your cats; you pray for your dogs. I don’t have time to pray for your animals. They’re your animals, they’re blessed, and they should be good. Please don’t call me.

I have people trying to get through to me to pray for people who are dying.

Just remember, you can go back through Deuteronomy 28, and you can look at all of the blessings, and you can look at all of the curses. You can see how things are supposed to be. Just know that He said in Matthew 6:32 and 33, “Your heavenly Father knows you need these things and if you seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto you.” Then in Ephesians 1:3, He said, “These things were added to you, because you did seek first His Kingdom.”

You are blessed with every spiritual blessing. It’s not a matter of, “Why isn’t God blessing me?” God has blessed you, but you need to believe it. God cannot do more for you than you can believe; at least directly for you. He can help you through other people who can believe for you. As I said before, a lot of people lose their healing, because they got it on somebody else’s faith. Usually, that’s the reason why people will lose their healing. You need to get your own faith for your own healing so that you can help other people and help make disciples of them. That is the way this is supposed to work. Amen? Let us pray.

“Father, I thank You. Lord, I believe with all my heart that I presented the truth and I presented it in line with Your heart and in line with Your will. Father, I thank You that Your Word does not go out and return void, but it does accomplish what You intend it

to accomplish. Father, I pray above everything else that has been said here today, not just that the people are blessed, that’s always good, but Father I pray that the people will get a vision of seeing people the way You see them and that they will begin to take on the responsibility that they are their brother’s keeper, and that we to do all that is in our power. Father, we thank You that as we feed and clothe and take care of the people, even though their faces differ, we know that we are doing it to You and to Your Son Jesus. Father, we thank You for it.

“Father, right now, because Your Word is Your Word and because wherever Your Word is preached, healings and blessings take place. I believe right now that, even as we have spoken, healing has taken place in the people. Their bodies, their minds, and even their spirits if need be, be healed, made whole, experiencing the blessing that is to be had in conjunction with being in union with You.

“Father, I thank You right now and I say, ‘In the name of Jesus, every person under the sound of my voice, if you’ve not made Jesus your Lord, do so.’”

Tell Him. I’m not going to give you a prayer; you’re going to talk to Him yourself. You’re going to tell Him that you want Him to be your Lord, and that you will obey Him. You’re just going to tell Him that, and the minute you do, you’ll be born-again.

Father, I thank You that as these people find Your Son as their Lord, they will also be healed. In keeping with Your command, in the name of Jesus, right now, I say, ‘BE HEALED, NOW! In the name of Jesus, head to toe, every aspect of every body under the sound of my voice right now, I command your body to be healed

and whole NOW in the name of Jesus. Be completely healed, completely whole, in the name of Jesus.’

“Father I thank You for Your Holy Spirit; and thank you for any of Your children that would simply ask You for the infilling of Your Holy Spirit, a gift of power, that You will give it to them; because it’s Your desire and it is to all of us.

Father, I thank You even right now that those that have not been filled with Your Holy Spirit, be filled, to overflowing, speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. Father, we thank You that we are made a habitation of You through the Spirit, in the name of Jesus. So be it. Amen. Amen.”

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APPENDIX A: HISTORICAL INFORMATION

1. The information presented in this book is for historical purposes only. References to people, organizations, professions, etc., are presented for the sole purpose of giving an accurate overall understanding of the prevailing viewpoints of particular groups, religions, denominations, and movements of the time periods referred to in the seminar .

2. Each reader is expected and required to make personal comparisons and decide for themselves which viewpoints to accept and endorse.

3. The material presented and its successful application is predicated upon the viewpoints of those during the time periods in which they lived.

4. Curry R. Blake and John G. Lake Ministries are in no way responsible or liable for the successful application of the material or for future re-presentation of the materials presented in this book.

APPENDIX B: PRACTICES CONCERNING MEDICINE OR MEDICAL TREATMENT

1. All information presented is not to be construed as advice or instruction in activities or practices concerning medicine or medical treatment.

2. The author of this book is not in any way a trained medical or psychological professional.

3. Any ministry services are being rendered from a position of compassion and mercy and are not to be construed as medical treatments or as substitutions for medical treatments.

4. No one can present themselves or anyone under their guardianship for ministry, without relinquishing and waiving all legal recourse that would or might be the end state of such person and/or anyone they present for ministry.

5. Anyone using this material cannot hold JGLM liable or responsible for their personal practice of ministry.

APPENDIX C: RULES FOR REPRODUCTION OF JGLM MATERIALS

1. The physical material in this book is and shall remain the property of the presenter and the JGLM organization they represent. All material in this book shall belong to the author.

2. No reproduction of the material in this book is allowed without express written permission from the author of this book.

3. Any material and/or information in this book or gained during the seminar or from audio/video material from the host organization, if presented to others at any time, shall be presented in its entirety as it is presented in this seminar, without change, adaptation, omission or addition.

4. Prior to the presentation of this material to any other persons, groups, and/or organizations, reader will contact and inform the presenting organization of personal intentions in writing. If told not to present the information, such person(s) are not to present it.

5. In the event said person is given permission to present information, they are to provide the host organization with an audio/video recording (in its entirety) of the material presented.

APPENDIX D: NON-MEDICAL ADVICE

1. The information presented in this book is in no way intended as advice or instruction concerning the use of medicine, medical treatment, or the avoidance thereof.

2. Each person is responsible to investigate all methods of remedy they are contemplating.

3. No one has a right or responsibility to make your decision except you.

4. Any reference to medicine or medical treatment is solely for historical or informational purposes.